SUBSTR: Extracting a Substring (Maintain)

Available Operating Systems: All Available Languages: Maintain

How to: Extract a Substring

Example: Extracting the First Character of a String in Maintain

The SUBSTR function extracts a substring based on where it begins and its length in the parent string. SUBSTR can vary the position of the substring depending on the values of other fields.

There is also a SUBSTR function available for the reporting language. For information on this function, see SUBSTR: Extracting a Substring.

Syntax: How to Extract a Substring

SUBSTR(string, start, length)

where:

string

Alphanumeric

Is the parent string enclosed in single quotation marks, or a field or variable containing the character string.

start

Integer

Is the starting position of the substring in the parent string.

length

Integer

Is the length in characters of the substring.

Example: Extracting the First Character of a String in Maintain

SUBSTR extracts the first letter of FIRST_NAME, combines it with LAST_NAME, and stores the result in UID:

MAINTAIN FILE EMPLOYEE                                
CASE TOP                                              
INFER EMP_ID FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME INTO ADDSTACK       
COMPUTE UID/A9 = SUBSTR(ADDSTACK().FIRST_NAME,1,1) || 
                 ADDSTACK().LAST_NAME;                
ENDCASE                                               
END 

The following table shows sample values for FIRST_NAME and LAST_NAME, and the corresponding values for UID:

FIRST_NAME				  LAST_NAME	  UID
JOE		         SMITH	      	JSMITH
SAM	        	 JONES		      SJONES
TERRI		       WHITE      		TWHITE